


Fuss and Feathers

by Foxberry



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Awkward Conversations, Birds, Embarrassment, First Meetings, Flirting, Getting Together, JeanMarco Gift Exchange, JeanMarco Secret Santa, M/M, Meet-Cute, Neighbors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 23:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17131004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foxberry/pseuds/Foxberry
Summary: When Jean had taken this job, he loved the idea of sitting at home and getting his work done at his own pace. He could rock up to work late, stay in his pyjamas, not worry about his mess of bed hair, drop into his company-paid office chair, and the world was his. Or at least it felt like that until his neighbour's bird started making a racket and Jean had to do something about it.





	Fuss and Feathers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bismuthsnowflakes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bismuthsnowflakes/gifts).



> If there's anything I love it's writing awkward and embarrassing banter between these two. In the end I wrote this to amuse myself so I hope you like it @bismuthsnowflakes!
> 
> Merry Christmas!

When Jean had taken this job, he loved the idea of sitting at home and getting his work done at his own pace. He could rock up to work late, stay in his pyjamas, not worry about his mess of bed hair, drop into his company-paid office chair, and the world was his. Or at least it felt like that when the coffee in his veins kicked in. Working from home was bliss, unlike the usual 9 to 5 slog. He wouldn’t have it any other way.   
  
Setting himself up on Monday morning went like clockwork, as much as it ever did for Jean. Today was a good day and by 9am he was sitting at his desk and checking through his emails with a coffee in his hand. It was the usual fare, taking his time to set up his day and systematically make his way through it. He’d just have to--   
  
“SCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”   
  
...The fuck was that?

  
Jean shook his head and blinked hard, squeezing his hand around his coffee mug. The ear-piercing screech from outside was weird for this time of the day. His house was in a quiet part of the suburbs. Every now and then there’d be a dog barking or a tire screeching, but beyond that the daytime was filled with the sounds of lazy traffic and birds twittering in the trees between the whistlings of the wind. Nice and boring. Jean’s kind of boring.   
  
“Okay, let’s get this started,” Jean said to himself, finally putting his coffee down to stretch his fingers and frown at his failure to crack his knuckles. He could do this. He just had to not think about--   
  
“SCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”   
  
The noise again. This time louder and more insistent. Whatever it was, it wanted attention, screaming out in the daylight like a warped alarm. Jean could get his work done, even if he wasn’t the most diligent of employees. It was just some bird, or at least it sounded like a bird. As far as Jean could tell it might as well be--   
  
“SCCRRRRRREEEEE. SCRAAAAAWWWW”   
  


A bat out of hell. Worse than a bat. A demon designed to haunt him.  _ Personally _ .   
  
Jean pushed himself up from his desk in a huff and stormed towards the window. He’d left it shut and still the horrendous noise had made it through! What kind of person had a creature that--   
  
“Oh…” Jean froze at the window, squinting through his blinds and peering across at his neighbour’s yard. A large aviary stood jutting above the fence. A giant echoey metal box also specifically designed to broadcast that horrendous noise to his ears. It was offensive even just to look at. More so knowing the squawking hellbat alarm was inside it.   
  
Huffing, Jean frown and returned to his work, shoving headphones over his ears and turning his music up. He could drown out the screeching and just get through it. That bird wasn’t going to get the better of him. Though his neighbour had to be some kind of neglectful jerk to have his bird screeching bloody murder.

 

For the next half an hour, he got through a handful of emails and found himself a good playlist to set the mood. This was his domain, his sanctuary, and the morning had gotten off to a bumpy start but he could totally recover after what had--

 

“SCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”   
  
He jumped, knocking his coffee mug to the floor and spilling it everywhere. “Oh, fucking--” he choked out in hissed anger. “That was hard earned bean water.” Now he was going to need another one. Not because he needed another hit but simply out of principle, and spite. Spite was strong with him now.   
  
Jean wasn’t sure if computers had the technology yet to determine whether a person was contemplating murder but he was sure if they had his would have been clear on his face. If only he could spontaneously develop the ability to explode birds at long range. He knew exactly where he would use that. 

 

“SCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”

 

Staring at the floor and the coffee slowly soaking into his special fluffy work slippers, Jean decided he’d had enough. Long distance bird explosions just weren’t going to happen on their own. He had very important business to do, like sitting at his desk, reading obscure news articles, and fluffing around to make it look like he was more important than he actually was. Important things.

 

Storming outside was the best thing he’d done all day. He was in his stride, wind in his hair, chest puffed out, determined like he’d had an entire cup of coffee instead of indirectly donating some of it to the floor. He had this. He was going to storm over there and demand that the bird be shut up and dealt with or--   
  
“Peanut!” called a man’s voice, stern but still so sweet. Jean might’ve liked the sound of it if it wasn’t talking to the hellbat bird. “What are you doing, sweetheart? Are you feeling lonely, hmmm?”   
  
Jean froze, hands searching for pockets in his pyjamas and finding nothing. Instead he looked like an idiot who had wandered out of bed and found himself outside. Not that he cared about how he looked, not at all, but his neighbour, dressed in a fitted tee and somehow tighter jeans, made him reconsider. Jean was a mess of bed hair and bed clothes and unmistakable glow of someone who didn’t give a shit. 

 

He came out here to give this bird what for with an added side of wishing that his focus constituted the powers to explode the hellbat into a puff of feathers. Barring that, he’d hoped at least to unravel the pent up frustration in his chest. Yet this man, talking so sweetly, had his brain screaming to find an exit, move, get out of sight before he--   
  


“Oh hey!” called the neighbour with a voice like spiced honey. His eyes were a deep brown, catching the sunlight in a way that fixed Jean to the point. The freckles across his cheeks further softened his brilliant smile, and when Jean couldn’t keep his gaze, his eyes dropped to the man’s broad shoulders and firm chest and--   
  
Oh fuck balls this guy was hot. Abort. Abort.   
  
Jean’s body refused to move and instead his mouth garbled some kind of sound akin to choking. Perfect. That’s entirely what he meant to do, body. Thank you. It's not like he wanted to appear to be somewhat put together after his entire birdsploding plans had spectuarly failed.   
  
Plans admittedly weren’t entirely his strong point. They involved pre-meditation and forethought and follow through, just a handful of things that perhaps, if Jean could admit it, were not entirely something that he was very good with. Flying by the seat of your pants tended to leave Jean with his pants down, more often than not, and not always in the good kind of way.

 

It hit Jean like a weak punch to the gut that he was meant to say something when someone spoke, especially if a hot person spoke to you. “Y-y-yeah, hi! Hello... Yes.” That was Jean’s first impression flying out the window or more accurately thrown out the window. “Your… bird…”   
  
His neighbour’s face broke into a brighter smile and then he dared to be cute by giving an apologetic shrug. “Sorry about her. She’s…” He moved closer to the fence, leaning on the wood and peering over. Fuck, he was tall too. “I thought bringing her home would help with her behaviour. See, she’s a rescue? Some asshole--pardon the language--thought having a cockatoo meant he could just leave her home alone with no one to talk to… So now she screams like this.” He turned to given Jean another one of those unfair smiles. “Sorry.” This guy was out to get him, and Jean wasn’t even dressed.

 

Words. Those were things that Jean knew. He could say them. His lips could move and work and his tongue too and the hot guy he had-- “Okay,” he wheezed finally. Okay? What the fuck was that? Pull yourself together, man. “Th-that’s okay…”   
  
His neighbour’s eyes narrowed with suspicion while he nodded slowly. “You didn’t seem so okay a second ago?” Bright Eyes McHotface was calling him out. The fuck. He did not have the right to be so gorgeous and so observant. “You stormed out here on a mission. I’m surprised you didn’t break your door when you slammed it.”   
  
Jean squawked and gestured and found his hands resting on his hips but couldn’t remember how they got there. “Look, that bird was totally… It was... “ All of the steam that had built up in him was coming out of his ears, except out of embarrassment instead of anger. Come on, Jean, hold yourself together.    
  
“Mhmm?” The neighbour leaned against the fence exaggeratedly and if Jean wasn’t completely out of his mind he could’ve sworn that was legit eyelash batting. “Well, I’m sorry she woke you from your beauty sleep.” His friendly smile turned into a smirk, more accusing than judging while his eyes took in the full pyjamas for the home office ensemble. “Not sure if you need any more of that.”   
  


Spluttering, Jean took a step back. He couldn’t blink enough times to reset his vision, but it was clear that he was not dreaming, even if McHotface was his own living, breathing, walking dream. “L-look… your bird was… you… I… I-It’s entirely unfair.” Jean crossed his arms with the tiniest bit of defiance that was left to him. His dignity was so far gone that he’d need the ability to time travel to preserve whatever he had to begin with.   
  
“SCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”

  
“Peanut, darling, please… Daddy’s trying to talk to…” he trailed off and gave a pointed look. “I didn’t catch your name, neighbour.” He grinned after giving the hellbat bird a soft smile. The two were probably conspiring. “Name’s Marco.”   
  
Jean held up one finger to pause the situation while his mind completely combusted. He was going to need a day off today. Working from home had its privileges, as did living in this tiny little block of townhouses, apparently. Though it’d be fantastic if his brain could keep with what was going on right in front of him so he didn’t look entirely like a deer in the headlights. 

 

“Jean.” His hand shot out over the fence. That’s what neighbourly neighbour people did, wasn’t it? Friendly gestures and holding hands-- shaking hands. Shaking… that’s definitely what his confidence was doing. “You can call me Jean.” That and everything else that this Marco guy would want to call him.   
  
Marco clicked his tongue and shook Jean’s hand, lingering the touch and not letting go. “Any chance I can call you that on the regular?” This guy had it out for him. That had to be it. There was some kind of revenge plot in place and he was simply setting it all up. “I’ve had my eye on you for a while… Peanut here just helped me actually meet you.” He gently let go of Jean’s hand.   
  
“That’s my name…” he sounded out before it clicked what Marco meant. He rubbed at the hand that had just been held by Marco, formerly McHotface. “L-like what?”   
  
“I could make it up to you? Be neighbourly and all that?” He teased and nodded playfully over at the aviary. “Since Peanut’s been so upsetting to you.”   
  
“She didn’t upset me!” Jean barked and crossed his arms, frowning. Really mature, Jean. You’re a real catch. “But yes, you can totally make it up to me. Depends how, though.”   
  
Marco grabbed onto the fence and tilted his head. “What do you say about dinner at mine? Once you’re done with your…” His eyes glanced over Jean’s pyjamas pointedly. “Nap? And whatever else you have to do today. It’s what neighbours do, right?”   
  
Jean frowned and shrugged his shoulders, trying to look more casual than he actually was. Inside he was screaming, like a certain annoying bat out of hell parrot. “I work from home. There’s no uniform.” Defending himself in his pyjamas did him no favours. “But I can do dinner at yours, if it’s a date.” That was risky. Stupid and bold and his breath had stop somewhere between those words.   
  
“A date,” Marco agreed and tapped the fence before backing away with a smile. How did that guy look so innocent and devilish at the same time? Like he’d just accomplished everything he’d intended. “See you at 7? I’m sure it won’t be too hard to find my place.”   
  
With that, Marco gave some more affection to Peanut and retreated into his townhouse, leaving Jean outside his house in his pyjamas. His brain was buzzing like a cicada, a persistent ongoing sound with no rhythm or change, like a hot summer had settled in his mind and made a home.   
  
In his daze he wandered back into his house and shut the door, quietly this time. Only then could he feel the cool touch of the wood against his back as his pyjama top slid up and his body sank down. That happened. His neighbour. That bird. A date. Today was definitely written off. There was no way he was going to be able to focus--   
  
“SCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”   
  
On anything but Marco.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! All comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. Most also serve as writer fuel. Never underestimate the power of writer fuel.
> 
> You can find me on twitter as [@belariobscura](http://twitter.com/belariobscura).


End file.
